Biased Information Search in Homogeneous Groups: Confidence as a Moderator for the Effect of Anticipated Task Requirements

When searching for information, groups that are homogeneous regarding their members’ prediscussion decision preferences show a strong bias for information that supports rather than conflicts with the prevailing opinion (confirmation bias). The present research examined whether homogeneous groups blindly search for information confirming their beliefs irrespective of the anticipated task or whether they are sensitive to the usefulness of new information for this forthcoming task. Results of three experiments show that task sensitivity depends on the groups’ confidence in the correctness of their decision: Moderately confident groups displayed a strong confirmation bias when they anticipated having to give reasons for their decision but showed a balanced information search or even a disconfirmation bias (i.e., predominately seeking conflicting information) when they anticipated having to refute unterarguments. In contrast, highly confident groups demonstrated a strong confirmation bias independent of the anticipated task requirements

Racial Awareness of Children in a Predominately White Area Compared to an Interracial Area

The effects of region and sex in relation to racial awareness were studied by comparing an interracial area to a predominately white area. The test ing of the hypotheses was carried out with two groups of preschool children comprised of 20 children from Utah State University in Logan , Utah, and 20 children from Children\u27s World in Ogden, Utah. The instrument used was one developed by J. Kenneth Morland, the Chairman of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Randolph- Macon Women\u27s College in Lynchburg, Virginia. The instrument con isted of s ix 8-by-10 black and white pictures about which questions were asked. In regard to region there was no significant difference in the two groups studied which would indicate that attitudes aren\u27t necessarily formed by direct contact with Negroes, but rather with contact with the prevelent attitude toward Negroes. There was significant difference in sex with girls being more aware than boys. Three factors play a part in this difference . First a difference in maturation. Girls generally mature faster than boys and thus their increased aware ness. Secondly , the idea that personal appearance is more s tressed for girl than it is fof boys. Thirdly, simply an indifference among the boys to really think about and answer the questions. An interesting finding was the children\u27s lack of clarity in regard to the term colored. It is not a term that is know by children in Utah as reflected in this sample

Evaluation of Spacecraft Technology Programs (Effects on Communication Satellite Business Ventures), Volume 2

The computational procedures used in the evaluation of spacecraft technology programs that impact upon commercial communication satellite operations are discussed. Computer programs and data bases are described

Epic Human Failure on June 30, 2013

Nineteen Prescott Fire Department, Granite Mountain Hot Shot (GMHS) wildland firefighters and supervisors (WFF), perished on the June 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire (YHF) in Arizona. The firefighters left their Safety Zone during forecast, outflow winds, triggering explosive fire behavior in drought-stressed chaparral. Why would an experienced WFF Crew, leave ‘good black’ and travel downslope through a brush-filled chimney, contrary to their training and experience? An organized Serious Accident Investigation Team (SAIT) found, “… no indication of negligence, reckless actions, or violations of policy or protocol.” Despite this, many WFF professionals deemed the catastrophe, “… the final, fatal link, in a long chain of bad decisions with good outcomes.” This paper is a theoretical and realistic examination of plausible, faulty, human decisions with prior good outcomes; internal and external impacts, influencing the GMHS; and two explanations for this catastrophe: Individual Blame Logic and Organizational Function Logic, and proposed preventive mitigations

Interior perfect fluid scalar-tensor solution

We present a new exact perfect fluid interior solution for a particular scalar-tensor theory. The solution is regular everywhere and has a well defined boundary where the fluid pressure vanishes. The metric and the dilaton field match continuously the external solution.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, LaTe

The impact of mothers’ gender-role stereotypic beliefs on mothers’ and children’s ability perceptions

The focus of this study is the relation between mothers ' gender stereotypic beliefs, their perceptions of their children's abilities, and their children's self-perceptions in 3 activity domains. Approximately 1,500 mothers and their 11- to 12-year-old children responded to questions about the children's abilities in the math, sports, and social domains. It was predicted that mothers ' beliefs about their children would be moderated by their gender stereotypic beliefs about the abilities of female and male people in general. As predicted, path analyses revealed that mothers ' gender stereotypic beliefs interact with the sex of their child to influence their perceptions of the child's abilities. Mothers ' perceptions, in turn, mediate the influence of past performance on children's self-perceptions in each domain. The existence of sex-of-child effects on both parents ' and children's perceptions of early adolescents ' abilities in mathematics is well documented (e.g., Eccles, 1984; Eccles, Adler, & Meece, 1984; Eccles [Parsons] et al, 1983; Parsons, Adler, & Kaczala, 1982). In general, girls rate their math abilities lower than boys. Similarly, parents of girls express less confidence i

Analisis Penerapan PSAK No. 45 Tentang Pelaporan Keuangan Entitas Nirlaba pada Jemaat Gmist Pniel Biau Kab, Kep. Sitaro

Profit entity is an organization that can be owned by the government or private sector owned, its main purpose is not for profit. One nonprofit entity engaged in religious church. As a nonprofit entity, the church should make financial statements accountability and reporting to users of financial statements of the church, the church that is the main source of income in the church. In Indonesia, a special standard financial reporting profit entity organized under Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 45. This research was conducted at the Jemaat GMIST Pniel Biau. The purpose of this study was to determine the adoption of PSAK No. 45 of the Financial Reporting Entities Non-Profit on Jemaat GMIST Pniel Biau. Descriptive qualitative analysis method is a method discussion of issues that are outlining, describe, compare and explain the data. Results showed Jemaat GMIST Pniel Biau not yet adopted PSAK No. 45 on the presentation of its financial statements, but the church is preparing financial statements of the realization of revenues and expenditures in accordance with the regulations GMIST no. 6 in 2012

ON THE GINZBURG-FEINBERG PROBLEM OF FREQUENCY ELECTROMAGNETIC SOUNDING FOR UNAMBIGUOUS DETERMINATION OF THE ELECTRON DENSITY IN THE IONOSPHERE

In the present work, we investigate an inverse problem of frequency electromagnetic sounding for unambiguous determination of the electron density in the ionosphere. Direct statement of this problem is known as the Ginzburg-Feinberg problem that has, in general case, an essential nonlinearity. Inverse statement of the Ginzburg-Feinberg problem has the boundary-value formulation relative to two functions: the sought-for electric-field strength and the distribution of the electron density (or rather two-argument function appearing in the additive decomposition formula for distribution of the electron density) in the ionosphere. In the present work, we prove the existence and uniqueness of the solution of the Ginzburg-Feinberg problem as well as we propose the analytical method, permitting: first, to reduce it to the problem of integral geometry, and, thereupon, having applied the adjusted variant of the Lavrentiev's theorem, to reduce the obtained problem of integral geometry to the first kind matrix integral equation of Volterra type with a weak singularit

We are being myopic about myopia control

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Relaxation dynamics of maximally clustered networks

We study the relaxation dynamics of fully clustered networks (maximal number of triangles) to an unclustered state under two different edge dynamics---the double-edge swap, corresponding to degree-preserving randomization of the configuration model, and single edge replacement, corresponding to full randomization of the Erd\H{o}s--R\'enyi random graph. We derive expressions for the time evolution of the degree distribution, edge multiplicity distribution and clustering coefficient. We show that under both dynamics networks undergo a continuous phase transition in which a giant connected component is formed. We calculate the position of the phase transition analytically using the Erd\H{o}s--R\'enyi phenomenology